By Kuo Chia-erh / Staff reporterYuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) yesterday gave an optimistic outlook for the nation’s steelmaking industry because of an uptrend in global steel prices, despite rising trade protectionism. Taiwanese makers have lowered their proportion of exports to the US, as the US government had already announced a series of anti-dumping duties on steel imports, the report said. In the report, Yuanta said upstream steelmakers would outperform downstream suppliers, partly because of a broadening spread of hot-rolled steel products, given that the average hot-rolled steel price last year returned to 2013 levels, but the average price of iron ore was only half the 2013 level. “Overall, we believe the industry dynamics favor upstream hot-rolled steel makers like China Steel Corp and Chung Hung Steel Corp (中鴻鋼鐵), compared with downstream steel sheet makers, such as Yieh Phui Enterprise Co and Sheng Yu Steel Co (盛餘鋼鐵),” Lee said. Hot-rolled products account for about 70 percent of Chung Hung’s total revenue.

Source: Taipei Times June 01, 2018 15:56 UTC